William+D.+Stanley

Twenty-six-year-old Moris Helen Herron went to Bakersfield, California abortionist William D. Stanley for a tubal ligation in October of 1983. When Stanley examined Helen, he informed her that she was pregnant and asked if she wanted him to perform a [|safe, legal abortion] when he did the tubal ligation. Helen consented, and on October 23, Stanley operated on her. After Helen went home, she suffered weakness, vomiting, and severe pain. She called Stanley, who instructed her to take a laxative. Helen developed a high fever, and died on November 3. An autopsy found feces and feculent fluid in Helen's abdominal cavity from a hole in her intestines. Helen's mother, Inez Herron, sued Stanley on behalf of her two surviving children, and Stanley settled out of court for $200,000. When a local pro-life group wrote to Stanley to chastise him for his treatment of Helen, he wrote back, saying, "Elective abortion refers to termination of a live viable pregnancy upon the request of the mother. I have never performed this service or even offered it." He claimed that he was merely performing a D&C on Helen after a miscarriage.

William David Stanley was born in Colorado Springs in 1950. He graduated from Georgetown University School of Medicine in 1978. He was originally licensed to practice in California on July 2, 1979, completing his residency at UCLA Kern County Medical Center. He was board certified in obstetrics and gynecology in 1989.

His only disciplinary action was quite a doozy, relating to the near-death of a patient who had come to him in 2000 for an elective outpatient procedure to insert medical devices to reduce urinary problems. Stanley lacerated a blood vessel, and only the dogged persistence of his staff in demanding that he treat his decompensating patient kept her from bleeding to death. He was placed on probation for five years during which he was not to supervise physician assistants, for reasons that are unclear given the circumstances. He was also required to attend mandated classes and training.

The probation order was issued in 2006. Stanley died at the age of 57 on January 31, 2008, prior to completion of his probation.

A blog that was created after his death (that I will not link to out of respect for the family) included many comments from former patients who praised him, including one who said that Stanley's prompt treatment of her pregnancy complications prevented a miscarriage and allowed her to have a healthy child. The death of Helen Herron and the near-death of the patient in 2000 seem to be out of place in an otherwise quite worthy career.